It's not all sweet, though, as Kuroko's friends scramble around trying to get him something special for his birthday. Confusion and misinterpretations ensue. (Certain idiots aren't helping the situation, either)

Every head in Class 2-B turned to stare at her and an unusually tall boy standing beside her desk.

A rough hand slapped over the brunette's mouth, and she kicked Seirin's ace in the shins instinctively. It earned a groan from the red head as he dropped onto one knee, trying to alleviate the pain by rubbing his leg.

Now free from the grasp of the taller first-year, Aida Riko towered above him menacingly. "Double the training menu."

"Wha―wait! C-coach!" Kagami stuttered, his heart rate quickening at the thought of running even just an extra lap around the gym. What's wrong with this demon of a coach?! All he did was cover her mouth! "I―"

"Triple."

That silenced the power forward for good, and he waited for permission before opening his mouth again.

"Wel...I wanna get him something..." he confessed, scratching the back of his neck. He was having trouble wording his thoughts. "And I sorta wanna get the team together so that maybe we could celebrate it, uh, together. With him. As a team. Please."

Riko rolled her eyes at Kagami's stammering. "So what do you want to do when everyone's gathered?"

He blinked. He hadn't thought of that. Sheepishly grinning, Kagami looked at his coach.

"Bakagami! Let's just give your neck a break from supporting that useless head of yours!"

"W-wait, Coach!" 'What the hell does that mean?! Are you just telling me indirectly that you're going to murder me?!'

"Shut up, you American returnee, you're too loud!" Another voice cut in, and Kagami promptly felt a blow to the back of his poor head. It was getting bullied quite a lot today.

Rubbing his head and scrunching up his eyebrows, he turned to face Hyuuga. "Hey, Captain."

Hyuuga's permanent scowl deepened. "What are you two up to now?"

'Why do you make it sound as if this is a common occurence? Isn't this what loudmouth Kiyoshi and Coach usually do together? How come I'm a part of it?!'

"Ah! There you are," Riko's smile widened. Good lord. "We were just talking about Kuroko-kun birthday! It's coming up in a few days, you know."

Kagami shuddered at her artificially sweet voice. This is why he liked salty things. The coach was like some mountain gorilla in the body of a teenage girl with the personality of an evil queen. No offense to gorillas.

"Kuroko?" Hyuuga frowned. "Birthday?"

"Yes! Kuroko-kun has a birthday too, you know!" Riko exclaimed, moving forward to lean closer to Hyuuga's face. Kagami noticed how the tips of his ears turned a darker pink. 'So that's how it is'.

"We're going to throw a party for Kuroko-kun!" she declared, moving away from the bespectacled boy, looking smugly at the two. Kagami exchanged glances with a stunned Hyuuga, both wondering about how the whole thing was going to work out.

It was Seirin's basketball club after all. Nothing is supposed to go smoothly.

Kagami blocked out the teacher's boring drones. Instead, he gazed at the back of Kuroko's head, as if all the answers in life lied there. Although, that thought was sort of creepy.

To be honest, Kagami wasn't sure what the teal haired boy liked, other than the obvious vanilla shakes and basketball. Cute puppies were out of the question. Besides, the ace had really wanted to get Kuroko something special. Something he would love, and keep with him forever, and something that would always make Kuroko think of Kagami and the other Seirin team members whenever he laid eyes on it.

But then, Kagami also wanted the gift to be useful. Meaningful and useful.

'Screw this.'

He wanted to bang his head against the desk, if it wasn't for the teacher up in the front of the classroom, ranting on about some essay technique. Life would be so much simpler if all he had to do was play basketball. And that's all he really wanted to do.

Glumly, he continued analyzing Kuroko's pale blue locks. The frustration inside of him began to build up.

Suddenly, the hair disappeared, and in their place were equally blue orbs, staring into his red ones nonchalantly.

"Kagami-kun, you're going to burn a hole through my head. Please stop and pay attention," the smaller boy said monotonously, before turning back around to face the blackboard. The teacher was scribbling nonsense on it now.

Blinking, it took Kagami a few minutes to realize what exactly Kuroko had said.

The frustration became rage, and it expanded in his chest until he thought he was going to blow up or something. And he couldn't do a thing to the other without getting in trouble. 'And besides, Kuroko's a little devil when it comes to revenge.'

Kagami slumped down on his desk, sulking, trying to ignore his anger. Life was really hard.

"Ah...what should I do?" Kagami wondered aloud as he scuffled along the sidewalk in the Shinjuku district. He passed by numerous stores, but nothing inside caught his eye.

The crowd was getting bigger, as more people hurried along, anxious to get home, to the bus stop, to a restaurant. Lights lit up every single corner, and it brought back memories of outings back in America with his friends.

He looked up at the dull sky, an endless sheet of gray. Sighing, he reached up to tighten his wool scarf around his neck and face more snugly. It was getting chilly.

As Kagami fixed the scarf, something caught his elbow. There was a thud, something being dropped.

A high pitched squeal rang in his ears, and Kagami cringed. 'I'm gonna get tinnitus.'

Turning to the person he had bumped into, the ace was about to apologize, when he realized who it was.

A pair of eyes the colour of fuschia blooms stared back at him. A wide smile spread across her initially shocked face. "Kagami Taiga of Seirin, 190 cm, power forward."

'What, is that supposed to be a greeting?' Kagami could feel himself making a weird expression.

"Uh...yeah, that's me."

He didn't know how to deal with people like her. He didn't know how to deal with any of Kuroko's middle school friends.

'How do I even deal with Kuroko?'

"So, Kagamin, what are you doing here, shopping at this hour?" Momoi Satsuki beamed at him. Kagami almost blanched at the nickname, even more so with the addition of the idea that he was shopping.

"That's shopping!" The girl's smile seemed unreal. 'I think her cheeks are gonna crack open if she smiles any further.' "That's good! I'm shopping too, so we can shop together, Kagamin!"

"What?! But what about Aho―Aomine? Can't you shop with him?" Kagami stammered. Why did this have to happen to him? Can't he just walk around some stores in peace without meeting any of the morons from Teikou?

'Well, I guess they're better idiots to come across than Akashi.' Kagami mentally shuddered at the thought of the other redhead and his...interesting initial interactions with Kagami.

At the mention of Aomine, Momoi pouted. "That moron went shopping with Ki-chan."

"Ki-chan? Kise? Ki-chan? That Ki-chan? I didn't hear wrong, right?" Kagami demanded, all thoughts of Akashi Seijuurou erased from his mind, and replaced with a slightly horrendous image of Aomine and Kise linking arms as they skipped through the shopping district.

"Ah, Kise-chan! How would this shirt look on me? I look hot, don't I?"

"EEK! Aominecchi! You look totally fabulous! How about this pair of jeans? Does it make me look fat?"

It made it all the more disturbing when the boy realized that the Kise he had just thought of wasn't actually a figment of his imagination. Kise really did act like that, didn't he? Kagami felt a shiver run up his spine, and he tried to shake off those thoughts. Though the Aomine created by his imagination was definitely going to give him a nightmare.

"Yes. Ki-chan was really giggly too, so he must be excited," Momoi mused, staring upwards as she tapped her chin with an index finger. "Dai-chan ran off without me when he saw Ki-chan, and said that he won't attend any of Touou's matches if I didn't leave them alone by themselves. It's like they're keeping a secret."

Momoi didn't seem to hear the tall boy. "Anyways, Kagamin, why are you shopping anyways? I didn't know you were this kind of guy! I mean, I could have just came shopping with you instead of dragging Dai-chan along everytime. He complains way too much anyways, so really, you could have told me sooner!"

The red haired ace felt his face heat up. "I'm just looking for Kuroko's present." 'And why do you make us sound so close? Would you really ask the guy you've seen like twice before to go spend girl time with you?'

The girl clapped her hands together. "Ah! Me too! I want to do something speical for Tetsu-kun! This is his first birthday in high school, after all!"

"So, about Kurokocchi's party..."

The cheerfulness Kise emanated beside him contradicted increasingly with the darkening sky, though if he wanted to look on the less annoying side of things, it blended in quite well with the city lights. Aomine sighed.

"Just set up a fountain spurting vanilla milkshake and I think that's all he needs."

"Hah? That's a little too out of character, you asshole!" Aomine sputtered. Kise's attitude was getting more and more annoying lately. The bluntness somehow reminded him of Kuroko. His legs froze in place.

Kise stopped walking too. "Swearing isn't a good habit, Aominecchi. Besides, I really want to buy Kurokocchi's present so I won't have to rush it later. Like a certain someone. So let's go!"

"Did you just casually add in that 'like a certain someone'? I heard that, you know!"

Kise pretended not to hear, and began walking again, his pace faster than before. "Ahh! I wonder what Kurokocchi would like...Probably something related to basketball, right? But he has basically everything he needs, so..."

Aomine sighed again. How did he get stuck with this idiot? Well, he knew, but he wondered why he had agreed to meet up with Kise at the train station to take him here to shop. At least Satsuki wasn't there.

Aomine was suddenly yanked back by the collar of his school uniform. He gagged slightly as the tie tightly pushed against his neck. "Ki―ki―se! You're choking me―let go!"

The grip loosened, but it was still there. Aomine was left to inhale deep breaths, glaring at the blond as the other stared up at a poster in wonder. Aomine followed the other's gaze, to a giant picture of a pair of basketball shoes. On the side of the shoes, a signature was scribbled over the surface.

"Aominecchi! This is perfect!"

lolololol

I can't write ok so forgive me this is so OOC I almost cried reading over it haha

/sob

anyways. This is my attempt at not killing characters off so

you know. I'm horrible at this. I'm horrible either way, killing fictional people or not.

It's supposed to be for Kuroko's birthday, but...I don't know where I'm going with this story lol